


Below the Earth: Hades Rising Prelude

by LadyAramisGrey



Series: Hades Rising [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), RIORDAN Rick - Works, Stargate - All Media Types
Genre: Daniel Jackson/Sha're (mentioned), Daniel is Blood of the Pharaohs, Discussion of the supernatural, Foreshadowing, Gen, Magic, Prologue, Prophecy, Stargate centric prologue to Xander centric story, fight me, foreshadowing of future plot, very future plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-09-19 11:47:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17001078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAramisGrey/pseuds/LadyAramisGrey
Summary: Deep under the earth, men fighting false gods discuss the reality underneath the military party-line. Monsters are real, and so is magic. Gods once walked in mankind's dreams...and their time may be coming again.





	Below the Earth: Hades Rising Prelude

Deep in the bowels of a mountain, two men walked through a maze of hallways. One carried a knapsack bulging with items, his glasses sliding down his nose as he hurried along. The man following him ran a bewildered hand through graying blond hair. He kept up with ease despite the other man’s hurry.

“I’m glad the airman agreed to buy this stuff for me,” the first man rambled as he jogged along. “My assets are still frozen from the whole—you know—being assumed dead thing, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to pay for it all. Honestly, I’m lucky everything I owned was at the old base when I stayed behind on Abydos, or I wouldn’t have anything left but my bank account. Anyway, I told him I’d pay him back as soon as I had working money again. I’ll be glad when I do. You may not mind wearing fatigues all the time, but I’d like some decent clothes again.” He rounded a corner and entered a large room, empty but for the massive ring situated in the middle of the space.

“Do you think General Hammond’s going to put Teal’c on our team?” he asked, continuing to talk as he walked halfway up the ramp towards the giant ring of metal and sat down. He began to pull items out of his bag—chalk, candles, a box of matches and an old and battered small book bound in what appeared to be scaly animal hide. “I mean, I know the call to the President was supposed to keep him from being sent off to be experimented on, but he might still get put on probation for a while. What do you think, Jack?”

Jack walked up behind him, frowning heavily. “Daniel, what exactly is this about?” he complained. “Tomorrow’s our first mission. I want a good night’s rest so we can wrap it up quickly. I don’t want to miss Charlie’s funeral.”

Daniel side-eyed him. “Well, Jack, that’s…actually sort of what this is.”

Jack blinked. “What?”

Daniel hesitated. “Jack, do you know why I even tried to publish that paper, and give that conference, on how aliens built the pyramids?”

“Dunno. I guess I always assumed your idealism had you convinced people would actually pay attention and listen to your evidence instead of dismissing you out of hand,” Jack said with a shrug.

The other man barked out a laugh, brushing his still over-long bangs out of his eyes. “No, it wasn’t idealism. I did it because believe it or not, there’s a significant portion of the historical and archaeological community that is “in the know”, so to speak.”

Jack blinked again, squatting down beside Daniel and staring at him in confusion. At the moment, Daniel was drawing out a strange, swirling, three-pronged symbol out on the grated ramp with his chalk. The base of the shape went down in white, and then Daniel began adding details in other colors.

“In the know about what?” Jack asked.

Daniel…hesitated. He glanced up at the colonel through his bangs. “Um…things that go bump in the night?” he said nervously.

Jack’s eyebrows tried to escape his forehead. “You know about the supernatural?” he blurted out.

Daniel stopped sketching with chalk, sitting rigidly straight. “ _You_ know about the supernatural!?” he squeaked, his voice echoing loudly around the room in his astonishment.

“Ya don’t have to be so surprised—” Jack began to protest, mildly offended, when a question came from the doorway to the Gate Room.

“What sort of supernatural do you know about?”

Daniel and Jack both looked up to see Teal’c standing in the doorway. He was no longer in his blue prisoner jumpsuit. Instead, someone had clearly gone scavenging clothes for him, because the former Jaffa was wearing a large sweatshirt that had the word _Marmot_ on it in bold letters and a pair of comfortable pants. Teal’c strode forwards towards them, looking down at Daniel’s handiwork—now spread over much of the ramp—as he came near.

“I had assumed by your conversations concerning the Goa’uld and their technology that you did not believe in gods, magic, and the like.”

Jack and Daniel exchanged a look. Daniel spoke first, slowly. “Well…here on Earth, there are two primary definitions for magic. The most commonly accepted definition is that magic is something which either appears unnatural or otherwise cannot be explained. We have entertainment known as “magic shows”, but usually everything accomplished there is done through trickery, sleight of hand. Usually, things that were once called magic on Earth are now described as not yet understood by science, but we know more and more all the time.”

Teal’c tilted his head to the side slowly. “And the second definition?”

Daniel began placing candles at the centers of the three interlocking spirals, as well as at their convergence point, wedging them into the grating. “The second definition of magic is any energy which can be used and harnessed without the use of technology. Of course, you still need tools. And most modern practitioners just agree that magic is likely an unexplored science. There are actually studies being done now on magic. Most of the people conducting those studies are calling themselves technomancers, because they’re combining hard science with magic to study magic and quantify it.”

Teal’c knelt behind the other two. “Fascinating. And you say most of the people of Earth do not believe in the latter definition of magic.”

Daniel nodded. “Yeah, it’s kind of a niche thing. See, there are still religions on Earth—gods worshiped, and the like. But it’s mostly believed now-a-days by anyone religious that the gods speak through dreams, feelings, and possibly visions. Gods don’t just walk up and talk to you. So it’s easy for us to dismiss the Goa’uld as gods. But even among religious groups, people…like being safe. And much of Earth’s supernatural…isn’t. So people disbelieve even _as_ they believe, if that makes sense.”

Teal’c nodded in grave understanding. “I believe it does. I have not forsaken the beliefs of my people. I have just come to understand that the Goa’uld are not the gods they claim to be, and thus are not worth following.” He did the head-tilt-thing again. “This is why you were both surprised the other knew of the supernatural. If it is an unpopular opinion, you must operate as a secret community to avoid ridicule.”

Jack nodded. “Yeah, which was what we were talking about.” He side-eyed Daniel. “But seriously, how’d _you_ find out about the supernatural? I know because I was a rebellious kid who went out smoking and drinking after dark in a big city. After the first time I got saved from bloodsuckers by a convenient church, the priest filled me in on the facts of life.”

Daniel laughed. “Jack, my entire _profession_ is about digging up old things and rummaging around in tombs! Most of us are briefed the first time we go on a dig that involved likelihood of crypts or catacombs. The others tend to get filled in on museum duty. Do you know how many cursed artifacts go through museums yearly?” He made a dismissive scoffing sound. “The only idiots who have no idea are the dusty academics who never do field work. Nobody in the actual archaeological field respects _those_ sorts.”

Surprised did not begin to describe how Jack looked. He shook his head. “Somehow, that makes an awful lot of sense. Can’t believe I never thought of it before.”

Daniel shrugged uncomfortably.  “We…don’t advertise it. But that’s why I thought people would believe me—most of the people at the conference had some level of knowledge about the supernatural, about creatures and demons. Apparently aliens were just a step too far down the weirdness scale for them to take it in,” he sighed.

Jack shook his head. “Bunch’a idiots. They can believe in vampires and demons, but not in aliens? What’s the difference between dimension traveler and planet traveler?”

“I do not understand,” Teal’c cut in. “Dimension traveler?”

Daniel nodded and explained hastily, “There’s a significant nonhuman population on Earth. A very few were native, like humans, but the vast majority either came from various hell dimensions or were mixed race descendants of beings who came from other dimensions.”

Jack clapped Teal’c on the shoulder. “I’ll tell you all about it later. You’ll need to know anyway—if you ever get out into our society, most people who realize you aren’t human will assume you’re a demon.”

“And that’s not an insult,” Daniel quickly cut in again when Teal’c frowned. “We know the word has negative connotations, but it’s just what most nonhumans are called. They’re either demons or fey. And if Goa’uld are as malevolent outside a host as they are in one, your symbiote alone will have people sensing you’ve got dark origins.”

 Jack nodded. “And on Earth, that means demon. Don’t worry, though. I have a Brachen fishing buddy who’s awesome, and he’d be considered a demon too. Now, can we please get back to the point about what the hell Daniel’s doing, and why I need to be here?” He turned to the man in question, expectant.

Daniel rolled his eyes at Jack’s bluntness. “Back to the point, yeah. The point being that…even though we didn’t know they were aliens, the academic magical community is fully aware of the Goa’uld. I even already had heard the term, though it’d been misinterpreted over the millennia.”

Both Jack and Teal’c blinked at him. Daniel waved his hands, frustrated. “Oh, come on. A group of interlopers wander in, conquer humanity, and get pushed out only by a drastic rebellion? You think none of that survived in historical record? I mean, they even had the gall to steal the identities of the local _gods_ , which let me tell you, that pissed the real gods off something fierce.”

Jack’s mouth opened and closed. “Daniel?” he said quietly. “What the hell do you mean, the real gods?”

Daniel shrugged. “Oh, gods exist,” he said simply, clearly not understanding how ridiculous he sounded. “They’re not…I mean, they’re not like the Goa’uld at all. Near as we can figure, the original gods—of all Earth cultures—were super powerful beings from a higher dimension. They could interact with our universe a little bit, and they did so first out of curiosity, and later because they learned could literally feed off of worship and fervent belief. Not in a creepy, vampire way. More like…I dunno, a leannan sith.”

“A whut?” Jack frowned.

“They’re a type of fairy that act as muses to artists and innovators. They literally get a high, an energy boost, from being around somebody using their imagination in a big way, so they infiltrate art communities and writing communities and act as sounding boards, as girlfriends and close companions to creative people. The leannan sith even have the ability to chemically boosts a person’s creativity levels. The creative people get plenty of benefits—writers never get writing block; artists never go through slumps. And all the leannan sith want in exchange is the chance to hang around those people and glean the leftover creative energy. It makes them live longer, keeps them beautiful…and the old gods were similar, only on a much vaster scale.”

He began to gesture, getting into his explanation. “When someone gave reverence to a god, or sent prayers, it was actually heard. The gods found that the more worship they received, the more they could interact with our plane of existence. It’s a bit more complicated than that, and interaction with the old gods was a lot of give and take, but…the thing is, they were here before the Goa’uld came. They stayed after the Goa’uld left. It was tricky while the false gods were here—the old gods learned that if someone imitates a god, they can…confuse? I guess? Yeah, they confuse the flow of energy. So while the Goa’uld were here, the true gods were weak and unable to tell humanity they were being tricked. It was actually the ancient Greek pantheon—well, a very proto version of its oldest gods—who were the only ones able to still speak with humanity, as young gods who’d not begun to really be worshiped yet. They helped inspire the planet-wide rebellion that resulted in the killing of all Jaffa here on Earth and, as _we_ now know, led to the burying of the Stargate in Egypt.”

Jack’s mouth was hanging open. Teal’c leaned forward, intense. “You mean there is a true Apophis? One I could still give honor to?”

Daniel winced. “Well…that’s the complicated bit. We know the old gods _used_ to exist. But…they were…for lack of a better term…conquered and exiled by another force in their dimension. See, the higher plane touches multiple universes, so when the old gods got into a war over _our_ universe, they just hopped ship and went to commune with another one. We know they still exist because the old rituals _do_ still work somewhat, and because small fragments of the old gods were split off from the whole and left behind in the war, but the gods themselves have retreated so far into their dimension if they interact with _any_ Earth, it’ll be one in a parallel universe instead of ours.”

Jack wrinkled his nose. “How would something drive out _all_ the…” he grimaced at using the word “… _gods_? I know enough to know there must have been thousands. Maybe millions.”

Daniel shrugged. “Well, they’re called by many names, but they call themselves the Powers that Be. The Powers first showed up right around the BC to AD switch. They weren’t involved with Christianity—they just sort of took advantage of its rise. They claimed to be angels representing the Christian God, and so they began influencing humanity at a turning point in Earth’s history. Of course, one or two _real_ angels eventually showed up eventually to confirm that they definitely weren’t working on God’s behalf, but by then it was too late. They’d taken advantage of the massive wave of Christian belief that swept across Europe and the world to push out and fight all the old gods—most of whom actually acknowledged _a_ Creator of All Planes and Dimensions, even if they never told _us_ who they believed that was—and so the Powers won a war they could never have fought on their own based on their lies.”

Jack was rubbing his temples now. “Real angels?” he whined.

Daniel smirked. “You can accept demons, fairies, and aliens, but not angels?” he teased, hearkening back to their previous conversation. Jack made a grumpy face and Daniel laughed. “Sorry, couldn’t resist. Yeah, they mostly focus on a different dimension—Dimension 0, also known as Earth Prime. We’re known as Dimension 46'\, or more locally as the Earth of Rifts, by the way. If you ever have any interdimensional encounters.”

Teal’c appeared to be thinking hard. “Daniel Jackson?” he asked. “Is this information common knowledge in your magical community?”

Daniel shook his head. “No, actually. Most people know the old gods are dead, and that the Powers replaced them, but not the hows or whys. My family’s just been digging up ancient knowledge and treasure since before archaeology was a thing.” He picked up the snakeskin book. “This is something my mom left me when she died. It’s all our family research on the fate of the old gods.” He began flipping through pages. “We were devout followers of the Dagda and the Morrighan, you see. The Morrighan had powers connected to fate—when you communed with her power, you could see the future. Apparently the old gods’ plane of existence didn’t actually have a sense of time. Most gods concerned with fate actually kept their fellow gods who were interacting with humanity from doing it in the wrong order, so as to avoid wrecking our history.”

That’s nice of them,” Jack said wryly. Daniel shrugged.

“Many old gods could be as arrogant as the Goa’uld, but there were always those that valued human life and properly acknowledged that without humans, they’d be stuck powerless and bored in their own plane. Back to the point, though. One of my ancestors received a vision of the defeat of the old gods, and their eventual return to this dimension. She wrote it all down, and her prophecies became the first pages in this book.”

He showed off the early pages. Sure enough, long lines of text were scribbled out in Medieval Latin. Around the writing were sketches of strange figures and people. Daniel tapped the opening page.

“This details the fall of the old gods. It’s in poetic verse, and most of it’s metaphorical because most true seers receive knowledge of the future through really symbolic, vague dreams. It’s up to them to interpret it and figure out what future wavelength their subconscious is trying to show them.” Daniel flipped a page. “And _this_ discusses the eventual rise of the young gods—heirs to the old gods.”

Jack’s forehead furrowed. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” he asked dryly.

Daniel shrugged. “Well, according to my ancestor the young gods were born of a union of the gods and of men, and they’re going to protect humanity in their journey to the stars, so…I’d say good.”

Teal’c sat forwards, fascinated. “It truly describes a journey to the stars?”

Daniel nodded, flipping to a new page with a small smile. The page he reached was dominated by the illustration of a woman. Her feet were buried in grass and her arms reached up to the sky. Centered between her hands was undeniably an active Stargate. Jack’s eyes went wide. “Woah,” he said. “This lady hundreds of years ago somehow knew what the Stargate looked like? But it was still buried in Giza then! That's crazy.”

Daniel shrugged. “That’s what I mean when I said the dreams of the future are really vague. This,” he tapped the illustration, “is known to my family as the Gate Goddess. She’s a future young god not yet in existence, but when she does arise she will be the _guide_ _of those who guard the gates to the stars._ And then there’s these two—”

Yet another page, this one bearing two figures. One stood tall, outlined in faint yellow to give the impression he glowed. Like the Gate Goddess, his arms were raised to the sky, but more like a showman than somebody reaching for something. His arms were spread wide, and in one hand he held up a staff or cane with what seemed to be the sun on top. Glasses had clearly been drawn over his face, obscuring all but a large rounded nose. Crouched down behind this figure was an identical one outlined in white instead of yellow. This figure had a crescent moon on his brow and held a book in his hands, a pen poised to begin writing. Jack squinted.

“Don’t think much of her art skills,” he said, despite how impressed he actually was. “The moon guy has the wrong number of fingers.”

Teal’c reached out a hand to briefly brush over the figure holding a sun staff. “This is a new Ra.”

Daniel nodded. “They’re just called “sun and moon”. The writing on this page,” which he proceeded to trace a finger down, “also describes a pair of stars that follow in the wake of the Day-Light and the Night-Light, but she didn’t draw them, so I suppose she didn’t get as clear a picture.”

Jack frowned and tapped a page. “What’s that? Illuminati origin myth?”

It was a triangle with the impression of an eye drawn in its center—long traced lashes the only indication that the eye was closed instead of open. Daniel grimaced. “It’s one of the few beings of the higher plane who still bothers Earth despite the efforts of the Powers that Be. Only in this case, it almost would have been better if _I_ _t_ had been banished like the old gods.”

“Then it is malevolent?” Teal’c asked. Daniel nodded.

“Think Goa’uld levels of disdain for humanity, but crazy and insanely powerful. And capable of invading your dreams and, if you make a deal with it, your _mind_.” Daniel looked down at it with a frown. “It’s said this being can spy through anything with its image—as long as the eye is open. That’s why this eye was drawn shut. Its eventually defeat is predicted to come at the hands of the Young Moon and the Reborn Sun.”

Daniel glanced up. “You know, if we can figure out a way to get Hammond to believe us about it, we probably ought to warn the SGC staff about the Beast with One Eye. It _likes_ meddling in significant human events. The old gods locked it away so that it could only interfere with permission, though. So long as nobody makes deals with it we should be fine, but it’s better safe than sorry.”

Jack nodded slowly. “I’ll…figure out a way to tell him that won't make him think we’re both crazy.”

Daniel nodded in relief, and deliberately turned away from the pyramid-shaped boogeyman. He flipped backwards to just after the illustration-less, introductory pages. Daniel’s book laid open, displaying two pages with a single figure each. The first, a being shrouded in darkness, horns on his head and a scepter in his hands. The second was the figure of a woman carrying an axe in one hand and a serpent in the other.

“This young god,” he said, tapping the dark horned figure, “is supposed to be the catalyst for everything. We’ve been calling him the Young King. God of darkness, death, and the deep earth.” Daniel glanced up at Teal’c. “He’d be a good replacement for Apophis, if you really want to continue worshiping. You’ve met the Goa’uld version of Apophis, so any worship you give to your god will get all muddled. But they’re fairly similar. My family tracked down other prophets and writings predicting his arrival—I’ve got tons of information on him, and he probably isn’t even born yet.”

Jack frowned. “What’s the point of worshiping something that doesn’t exist yet?”

“Well,” Daniel said, leaning forward, “it’s actually rather like down payment. All these gods have no names, only _roles_ , but my family and a few others who’ve gathered this information worship them anyway. All that worship is building in the background, just sort of…being stored in the higher plane where the old gods truly live. When the young gods begin appearing, they will find themselves able to harness it. It’ll hasten their rise to power, and their influence with humanity.”

“And that,” Daniel grinned, “brings us back to what I brought you here for.” He tapped the strange spiraling symbol drawn onto the ramp. “This is a triskele. It’s been used in a number of religions, for several different reasons, but it’s one of the oldest symbols in humanity. It predates Goa’uld influence here—possibly even predates the Primordium Age, which many Earth scholars who know about the supernatural mistakenly think was the origin of humanity. While it has been used for various things when attached to various gods, its original purpose was as a beacon. It’s literally a smoke signal into the plane of the gods.”

Jack’s eyebrows drifted upwards again. “Yeah, and?”

Daniel shrugged. “The old gods had some level of power over human souls. They could somehow draw believers into their plane of existence after death. No idea whether it was actual _souls_ , or just a leftover imprint of consciousness, but…we’ve all met the Goa’uld. We all know “gods” in a sense exist. If Kawalsky also knew about the supernatural…”

He glanced at Jack, who nodded. Daniel nodded back. “Then he’s probably got a lingering spirit here from how he died. I’m going to set a beacon. The age of the young gods is soon—the uncovering of the Stargate was actually predicted in multiple prophecies as a sign of their coming, even if obviously most scholars had no idea how to interpret a "Doorway to Heaven". I can set a beacon for the Young King, and he’ll take care of Kawalsky’s soul if he’s still lingering at all.” He glanced at Jack. "That's what I meant earlier when I said this was sort of a funeral for Kawalsky. Even if you don't believe in this aspect of magic, you can think of it as a memorial for him."

Jack gave Daniel a wan smile. “That’s…thanks, Dan.”

“I also thought,” Daniel said, “I could ask the Gate Goddess to watch over the souls of Sha’re and Skaara.” He looked worn and pained for a moment. “I’ve believed in the gods my whole life. I…I _have_ to believe, if there’s a chance we can rescue my wife and her brother, that the gods will help us. They _hate_ the false gods. Surely they’ll help.”

Jack clapped Daniel comfortingly on the shoulder. “I’m sure they will, Daniel. Now, what do we do to get this smoke signal smokin’?”

Daniel smiled softly back at his friend. Then he turned to the triskele and clapped his hands together. “A’max!” A shining hieroglyph appeared in the air, and the candles all burst into dancing flames. Teal’c watched with wide-eyed wonder, and Jack himself looked impressed at Daniel’s casual use of magic.

“Was that Egyptian?” Jack had to ask. Daniel grinned.

“My family might have followed the path of the gods of the land we lived in the longest, but I’m of the blood of pharaohs. I’ve been trained as a magician in the path of Djeuti. Now,” he said, standing up. “You two stand at the other spirals if you’d like to participate. We’ve got a beacon to set.”

Daniel’s voice echoed around the room again as he began to speak, his words echoing eerily. “ _I call to the young gods who have not yet come to be. I call to the young king, guardian of the dead. I beseech you to protect and guide the soul of Charles Kawalsky, who was attacked by a false god in service to humanity…_ ”

_"I call on the gods young and old to protect the souls of Sha're and Skaara, whose lives have been overtaken by false gods who have stolen the names of the Pantheon of the Duat..."_

**Author's Note:**

> This is only a prologue to my main story, Hades Rises. I posted it as a oneshot because the next SG1-centric chapter in my story isn't for...twenty chapters. Ish. But it was easier to have the prologue/foreshadowing of basically the whole series plot come from Daniel because of later plot reasons, so I wrote it this way.
> 
> The main story focuses mostly on Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. SGC will exist in that universe, and will be a recurring character set/plot point underneath the main story, but it's not actually a primary focus until Part 3.
> 
> The next part directly following this is Book 1: Prince of Death: Part 1, Legacy. The first chapter will be posted tomorrow, January 1, and every subsequent chapter will be posted on either the 30/31 or the 1st of the month.


End file.
